The present invention relates to the manufacture of printed circuits and, more particularly, to a process for improving the insulation resistance of printed circuit boards.
In the manufacture of printed circuits, a fundamental starting material is a planar insulating substrate material, typically composed of an epoxy resin and more typically a glass-reinforced epoxy resin, having a thin layer of copper foil adherently bonded to one or both of its surfaces. From this printed circuit board starting material, a variety of different types of processes can be carried out to selectively define on the surfaces those areas which will constitute the conductive circuitry of the printed circuit and those areas which will be non-conductive, and the hallmark of all such processes is an eventual etching of copper, including the original thin layer of copper foil, in selected areas to there expose the underlying insulating substrate.
In a typical process, for example, double-sided printed circuits are manufactured from a board comprised of an insulating substrate having a thin layer of copper foil adherently laminated to both its surfaces. Through-holes for conductive interconnection of circuitry on both sides of the board are drilled through the board and the board is electrolessly plated with copper to metallize the through-hole surfaces and provide additional copper over the copper foil. An organic plating resist (e.g., from the application, imaging and development of a photoresist) is then applied to board surfaces to provide a plating resist pattern in the negative of the desired circuitry pattern, and additional copper is selectively built up on the non-resist areas via electroplating. Thereafter, an etch-resistant material (e.g., tin-lead) is selectively electroplated onto the exposed copper areas not covered by the plating resist, and thereafter the plating resist is removed. The board is then treated with a copper etchant to etch away the copper areas which were previously covered by the plating resist, thereby arriving at a selective pattern of conductive circuitry and insulating substrate areas on the board surfaces. Typical processing steps thereafter may include reflow and fusing of the tin-lead, followed by selective application of a solder mask.
Critical to the functionality of printed circuits is the electrical integrity of the selective conductive paths and areas, as provided by the selective areas of insulating material which separates them on the planar board surface. To this end, the insulating material used in producing the copper foil clad substrates as the starting material in printed circuit manufacture is chosen to have a high electrical resistance. The surface of insulating material exposed after selective etching during the printed circuit manufacturing process generally exhibits somewhat less resistivity than the original insulating material itself, sometimes as a consequence of incomplete etching away of copper, but more commonly as a consequence of the presence on the surface of metal species from compounds (e.g., zinc and/or chrome compounds) employed by board manufacturers in the process of adhering the copper foil to the insulating substrate, which metal species are apparently so intimately associated with the board surface as to resist complete removal in the copper etching process.
The decreased resistivity of the insulating material surface brought about by the presence of these metal species can be tolerated in certain printed circuits where relatively large insulating areas separate conductive areas. However, the trend today is toward much more complex and dense circuitry patterns, and as a consequence poor resistivity of the insulating surface areas, and particularly latent conductive paths thereon resulting from retained metal species, can readily lead to undesired cross-talk and shorting between closely-spaced conductive areas.